/ 


AN 


ADDRESS 


DELIVERED    BEEORE 


THE  HAMPSHIRE,  FRANKLIN,  AND  HAMPDEN 


AGRICULTURAL   SOCIETY, 


AT  NORTHAMPTON,  OCT.  29,  1829. 


BY   FESTUS   FOSTER. 


NORTHAMPTON : 
T.    WATSON    SHEPARD....PRINTER. 

1829. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 
AT  AMHERST 


UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

Special  Collections  &  Rare  Books 


ADDRESS. 


The  Lord,  who  formed  the  earth,  formed  it  to  be  inhabit- 
ed. What  were  its  original  soil  and  climate,  and  what  its 
animal  and  vegetable  productions,  it  may  now  be  difficult  to 
.determine.  Thus  much  we  know,  that  the  whole  and  every 
part  were  such,  that  infinite  wisdom  and  benevolence  sur- 
veyed them  with  delight,  and  pronounced  them  good. 

In  such  a  world  as  this  were  our  primeval  incestors  plac- 
ed, and  the  employment  assigned  them  was  to  till  the  ground 
and  eat  of  its  fruits.     Had  our  race  continued  innocent  and 
undefiled,   agriculture  must  have  been  a  pleasant  recreation, 
rather  than  a  toil.    We  might  then  have  seen  those  products 
of  the  field,  which  now  cost  us  much  labor,  growing  sponta- 
neously or  with  little  care  ;   our  trees  not  infested  with  the 
canker  work  and  the  caterpillar,   our  wheat  not  choked  by 
tares,  nor  our  pastures   and    meadows  over-run  with  briars 
and  thistles.     So  harmless  might  have  been  the  beasts  and 
reptiles,  that  the  figurative  language  of  prophecy  would  have 
been  hterally  true,  and  we  might  have  seen  "  the  wolf  dwell 
with  the  lamb,    and  the  leopard   lie  down  with  the  kid,  the 
calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  falling  together."    We  might 
have  seen  our  children,  not  only  safely  sporting  with  the 
lion,  the  leopard,  and  the  wolf,  but  "  playing  on  the  hole  of 
the  asp,  and  putting  their  hands  on  the  den  of  the  cockatrice, 
and  there  be  nothing  to  hurl  or  destroy  in  all  the  earth." 


But  the  earth  has  suffered  a  sad  reverse.  The  loss  of 
innocence  was  followed  by  the  loss  of  paradise.  The  ground 
has  been  cursed  for  man's  sake,  and  doomed  to  bring  forth 
thorns  and  thistles,  and  man  himself  to  earn  his  bread  by 
the  sweat  of  his  brow.  From  that  sad  hour  to  the  present 
time,  agriculture  has  required  our  utmost  labor  and  ingenu- 
ity. Useless  and  noxious  weeds  spring  up  spontaneously, 
and  flourish  in  all  their  pomp  and  luxuriance,  while  every 
plant  adapted  to  our  sustenance  or  pleasure,  must  be  nur- 
tured by  our  care.  In  our  own  fertile  and  happy  land,  how 
few  plants  are  the  native  products  of  the  soil  ?  With  the 
exception  of  your  Indian  corn,  your  whole  farms  are  stocked 
with  vegetables  of  other  climes.  Before  these  could  take 
root,  immense  forests  were  to  be  removed  ;  and  before  they 
could  flourish,  they  must  be  enclosed  from  grazing  beasts, 
or  the  beasts  themselves  exterminated.  All  this  effected, 
your  constant  labor  and  care  are  requisite  to  defend  the 
tender  plant  from  weeds,  insects,  and  reptiles,  and  to  mel- 
low the  earth  that  it  may  expand  its  roots  and  grow  to 
maturity. 

In  rearing  animals,  your  task  is  not  less  diflicult.  Those 
which  are  fitted  to  be  useful,  either  for  food,  labor,  or  cloth- 
ing, and  which  you  would,  therefore,  domesticate,  are  gra- 
minivorous, and  must  be  restrained  from  access  to  such 
vegetables  as  you  wish  to  preserve.  They  are  mostly  of 
foreign  origin,  and  unable  to  subsist  in  this  climate  without 
your  care.  You  must  therefore  provide  for  them  food  and 
shelter,  during  the  inclement  winter,  and  protect  them  from 
beasts  of  prey.  The  hawk  watches  for  your  poultry  by  day 
and  the  fox  by  night.  The  wolf  in  your  sheep-cot,  gives 
ocular  demonstration  that  Samson  was  not  more  vaHant 
among  the  Philistines,  nor  ever  wielded  a  jaw-bone  with 
better  success. 

There  is  another  event  recorded  in  sacred  history,  which 
had  an  effect  upon  the  whole  surface  of  the  earthy  and  pro- 


bably  a  deleterious  effect  upon  agriculture.  I  refer  to  the 
universal  deluge.  When  the  inspired  historian  tells  us  of 
"  the  waters  under  the  earth,"  and  that  in  the  days  of  Noah 
"these  fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  broken  up,"  and 
the  billows  rolled  over  the  land  ;  and  at  the  same  time 
"  the  windows  of  heaven  opened,"  and  the  rain  let  down  in 
torrents  until  the  whole  earth  was  inundated,  there  must 
have  been  such  a  convulsion  of  nature  as  to  alter  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  piling  up  mountains  here,  and  making  excava- 
tions there,  if  indeed  the  earth  itself  was  not  racked  to  its 
centre,  and  torn  to  fragments.  Some  philosophers  have 
supposed  that  such  was  the  fact ;  and  that  the  earth  was 
thrown  from  its  original  position  in  the  heavens  so  as  to  in- 
cline its  axis  to  the  plain  of  its  orbit.  On  this  theory  they 
account  for  the  longevity  of  the  antideluvians,  to  whom  there 
could  have  been  no  variation  of  seasons,  and  maintain  that 
"seedtime  and  harvest,  cold  and  heat,  summer  and  win- 
ter," commenced  after  the  deluge,  when  the  promise  was 
made,  that  they  should  never  cease.  Some  change  in  the 
soil  or  climate,  not  less  than  that  contended  for  in  the  above 
theory,  must  have  taken  place,  as  an  adequate  cause  for  at 
once  reducing  human  life  to  one  tenth  part  of  its  original 
length.  A  change,  so  unpropitious  to  animal  life,  could 
hardly  be  otherwise  than  detrimental  to  the  growth  of  vege- 
tables. Besides ;  after  the  labor  and  experience  of  more 
than  sixteen  centuries,  all  was  lost.  Not  a  record,  nor  ves- 
tige left ;  but  Noah  and  his  sons  had  to  commence  their 
labors  and  experiments  anew,  in  a  new  world.  Add  to  these 
considerations,  the  shortness  of  human  life,  so  that  but  little 
time  is  left  us  to  be  active  and  useful,  after  we  have  arrived 
to  years  of  discretion  and  gained  a  competent  knowledge  of 
agriculture,  before  we  feel  our  constitution  begin  to  decline, 
and  with  a  palsied  hand  and  tottering  step  quit  the  field  of 
labor,  and  by  our  firesides  wait  our  coming  dissolution. 


€f 

There  is  another  cause  which  has  been  most  detrimental 
to  the  interests  of  agriculture  ;  the  baneful  effects  of  which 
have  been  felt  in  every  age.  A  great  part  of  the  bone  and 
sinew  of  every  nation  has  been  drawn  from  the  field  to  the 
camp.  War,  needless  and  unjust  war,  has  left  one  country 
untilled,  to  spread  ruin  and  desolation  over  another.  Had 
the  lives  and  treasures,  wasted  in  war,  been  employed  in 
cultivating  the  soil,  and  opening  roads  and  canals  from  one 
section  of  country  to  another,  who  has  imagination  to  con- 
ceive what  must  have  been  the  present  state  of  the  world  ? 
Who  will  venture  to  estimate  the  increased  wealth  and  pop- 
ulation of  the  different  nations — the  facilities  of  communica- 
tion— the  ease  and  plenty  which  would  every  where  abound 
— and  the  advances  which  would  have  been  made  in  all  the 
arts,  sciences,  comforts,  and  elegancies  of  life  ? 

Agriculture  has  been  left  to  struggle  with  the  ignorance, 
as  well  as  to  suffer  from  the  wickedness  of  man.  It  had  to 
crawl  into  existence  under  every  disadvantage.  The  quali- 
ties of  plants  and  the  means  of  propagating  or  destroying 
them,  as  they  were  found  useful  or  noxious,  were  lessons  to 
be  learned  without  an  instructer.  The  like  ignorance  pre- 
vailed respecting  animals.  What  species  were  proper  to 
domesticate,  how  they  could  be  supported,  and  to  what 
uses  they  could  be  applied,  were  inquiries  which  could  be 
solved  only  by  experiment.  When  we  turn  to  the  imple- 
ments of  husbandry,  similar,  if  not  greater  difficulties  pre- 
sent themselves.  Vast  forests  are  to  be  annihilated,  the 
firm  soil  loosened  that  your  seeds  may  send  out  their  slender 
roots,  and  heavy  burdens  removed  from  the  field  to  places 
of  safety.  What  implements  are  necessary  to  effect  all  this, 
and  how  and  where  are  they  to  be  procured  ?  Who  knows 
the  properties  of  iron  ?  In  what  mountain  is  the  ore  con- 
cealed ?  Who  can  did  it  up,  separate  the  metal  from  the 
dross,  and  without  tools  or  patterns,  fashion  tools  for  the 
farmers  use  ?    Ages  on  ages  must  have  rolled  away,  before 


men  could  have  acquired  such  a  knowledge  and  such  im- 
plements of  husbjundry  as  now  seem  necessary  to  a  bare 
subsistence.  Their  food  and  raiment  must  have  been  scanty 
and  of  the  coarsest  kind  ;  their  implements  few  and  of  the 
rudest  form.  What  little  science  there  was  in  the  world, 
was  applied  to  other  purposes  than  the  cultivation  of  the 
earth.  The  attention  of  princes  was  directed  to  objects  of 
pleasure  and  aggrandizement,  to  their  courtiers  and  their 
concubines — their  wars  and  their  conquests,  while  the  poor 
unlettered  peasant  was  left  to  grope  his  way  in  the  dark, 
unaided,  unpitied.  Artisans,  if  such  there  were,  applied 
their  skill  to  the  manufacture  of  swords  instead  of  plough- 
shares— of  spears  instead  of  pruning-hooks.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  the  earth  was  left  to  the  lowest  and  most  debased  of 
the  people,  who  were  alike  destitute  of  skill,  energy,  and  a 
laudable  ambition.  It  was  an  employment  in  which  none 
could  expect  to  rise  to  distinction,  and  in  which  the  ambi- 
tious and  enterprising  never  engaged.  It  was  accounted  a 
mean  and  degraded  occupation,  and  treated  with  neglect 
and  contempt.  Up  to  the  present  hour,  Europe  is  divided 
into  two  gieat  classes,  denominated  the  gentlemen  and  the 
peasantry,  or  the  laboring  class,  and  those  who  are  above 
labor.  And  so  deeply  rooted  was  this  distinction,  that  our 
ancestors  brought  it  with  them  to  this  country.  Perhaps  it 
may  be  within  the  recollection  of  some  who  now  hear  me, 
that  a  distinction  was  once  made  in  our  universities  between 
the  sons  of  our  yeomanry,  and  the  sons  of  our  American 
gentlemen  !  O,  "  tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  the 
streets  of  Askelon." 

I  might  mention  other  causes  with  which  agriculture  has 
had  to  contend  ;  such  as  the  unequal  distribution  of  land, 
the  consequent  custom  of  renting  it  to  tenants,  and  the  tithes, 
tribute,  and  taxes  which  have  oppressed  and  disheartened 
the  cultivator  in  every  age.  In  most  of  the  governments  of 
Europe,  the  title  to  the  soil  is  founded  on  conquest.     The 


8 

subjugated  country  was  parcelled  out  among  the  military 
chieftains  of  an  invading  army,  and  its  inhabitants  reduced 
to  a  state  of  vassalage.  The  policy  of  these  great  land- 
holders, who  were  to  be  ths  future  lords,  barons,  and  no- 
blemen of  the  realm,  has  been  to  retain  their  estates  in  their 
own  families,  and  rent  them  to  the  laboring  poor.  Hence 
the  distinction  of  landlord  and  tenant  has  become  universal. 
Where  the  landed  property  is  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  poor  and  dependent,  the  rich 
landlord  will  impose  on  his  tenants  rents  and  exactions  to 
the  full  extent  of  their  strength.  The  humble  laborer  has 
nothing,  and  can  acquire  nothing.  He  has  neither  skill,  nor 
leisure,  nor  means,  nor  motives,  to  make  any  experiments 
or  improvements.  A  bare  subsistence  is  all  he  can  expect, 
and  this  is  the  goal  of  his  highest  ambition.  The  lords  of 
the  soil,  instead  of  planning,  directing,  and  superintending 
improvements  on  their  estates,  are  off  on  excursions  of  gal- 
lantry, or  at  court  basking  in  the  sunshine  of  royalty,  or  at 
the  banquet  revelling  in  luxury.  The  extravagance  and 
dissipation  of  the  landlord,  and  the  poverty  and  depression 
of  the  tenants,  have  caused  "  the  land  to  mourn." 

I  have  glanced  at  the  past,  that  by  comparing  the  present 
state  of  agriculture  with  its  low  and  degraded  state  in  for- 
mer times,  you  may  perceive  how  much  has  already  been 
done  under  every  disadvantage — that  a  beginning  has  been 
made — that  many  impediments  have  been  removed — that 
stronger  inducements  are  furnished — and  that,  like  St.  Paul, 
you  have  only  to  "  thank  God  and  take  courage,"  to  per- 
fect what  is  wanting. 

The  general  principles,  necessary  to  be  observed  by  the 
agriculturist,  are  few  and  simple.  It  is  an  established  law 
of  nature  that  death  sustains  hfe.  Some  species  of  animals 
are  supported  by  the  death  of  others,  and  some  by  the  de- 
struction of  vegetables.  Animals,  which  have  been  found 
most  useful  to  man,  are  wholly  of  the  latter  kind.    The  first 


9 


attention  of  the  farmer,  therefore,  must  be  directed  to  the 
production  of  such  vegetables  as  contribute  to  the  support 
of  man  and  such  animals  as  he  has  selected  for  his  use.     In 
the  production  of  vegetables,   the  same  law  of  nature  pre- 
vails-death  is  necessary  to  life.    You  must,  therefore,  seek 
that  dark,  loamy  soil,  which  has  been  formed  by  the  decay 
of  vegetables  for  a  series  of  years,   and  as  you  exhaust  it  by 
repeated  crops,  add  either  animal  or  vegetable   decomposi- 
tion, and  like  the  fabled  Phenix,  one   crop  will  arise  from 
the  ashes  of  another.     Excepting  a  fe^v  tender  and  delicate 
plants,  manures  are  most  efficacious  when  applied  in  a  state 
of  fermentation.     They   communicate    a   slight    degree   of 
warmth  and  action  U,  the  adjacent  soil,   salutary  and  even 
necessary  to  vegetation.     Any  animal  or  vegetable  substan- 
ces,  compacted  in  a  mass  and   imbibing  a  moderate  de^^ree 
of  moisture,  will  soon  pass  into  a  state  of  fermentation,''  by 
which  they  are   decomposed,   and  fitted  to  produce  another 
crop.     Hence  every  farmer   may  manufacture  compost  to 
almost  any  extent.     The  value  of  manure   is   different  on 
different  soils.     It  is  productive  on  all,  and  on  some  indis- 
pensable.    Land,  once  brought  into  a  state  of  high  cultiva- 
tion, by  returning  the  proceeds  of  its  crops,  will  not  degen- 
erate.    Sterile  lands,   and  such  as  have  been  exhausted  or 
neglected,  may  be  made  productive  in  a  few  years  by  com- 
post and  the  plough. 

Where  different  and  opposite  soils  lie  contiguous,  much 
benefit  may  be  derived  by  admixtion.  A  sandy  or  gravelly 
soil  may  be  greatly  improved  by  a  covering  of  loam,  mud, 
or  clay.  On  the  contrary,  cold,  wet,  muddy  land  will  be 
greatly  mehorated  by  a  coat  of  sand  or  gravel.  A  soil  warm 
and  dry,  especially  if  sloping,  may  be  made  highly  produc- 
tive by  irrigation.  If  accompanied  by  an  occasional  top 
dressing  of  barn  manure,  the  farmer  will  be  well  repaid.  In 
a  mountainous  region,  like  some  parts  of  the  territory  within 
the  Hmits  of  your  society,  where  precipitous  streams  abound, 

2 


10 

and  whole  farms  lie  on  a  declivity,  I  am  persuaded  great 
advantages  might  be  derived  from  this  use  of  water.  A  few 
days  labor  would  add  some  tons  of  fine  hay  to  your  annual 
income.  To  the  agriculturist  this  must  be  considered  a 
staple  article.  It  is  the  support  of  your  animals,  and  the 
means  of  enriching  your  arable  lands,  and  gathering  from 
thence  a  golden  harvest. 

Upon  the  culture  of  plants,  I  have  time  to  say  but  a  word, 
and  that  is,  treat  them  not  with  neglect.  They  require 
your  friendly  visits,  and  the  repeated  application  of  the  hoe. 
The  garden  will  demand  your  daily  attention.  This  may 
be  a  pleasant  resort,  when  you  have  borne  the  heat  and  bur- 
den of  the  day,  and  the  evening  tide  invites  to  meditation. 
There  you  may  breathe  the  fragrant  air,  succor  the  young 
plants  emerging  from  the  earth,  and  watch  their  progress 
through  all  their  changing  forms. 

The  cultivation  of  trees  is  a  subject  to  which,  I  think,  I 
may  with  great  propriety  invite  your  attention.  Not  only 
would  I  recommend  to  every  farmer,  an  orchard  of  choice 
fruit,  well  fenced,  and  well  pruned,  but  a  thrifty  wood  lot, 
in  which  no  grazing  animal  should  feed,  and  from  which 
fuel  and  timber  should  be  cut  with  care.  We  ought  to  hve 
not  only  for  ourselves,  but  for  our  children,  and  for  poster- 
ity. Situated  in  a  region  where  much  fuel  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  a  comfortable  existence,  where  coal  mines  are 
not  to  be  found,  and  where  the  demand  for  lumber  is  in- 
creasing with  the  w^ealth  and  population  of  the  country, 
our  forests  already  thinned  or  made  bare, — there  is  great 
reason  to  apprehend  that  in  the  next  and  succeeding  gener- 
ations, the  scarcity  of  fuel  and  lumber  will  diminish  your 
population — that  the  expenses  will  absorb  a  great  "portion 
of  the  income  of  your  fertile  and  well  cultivated  farms,  and 
your  splendid  villages  and  temples  fall  to  decay.  The  time 
seems  to  have  arrived  when,  instead  of  enlarging  our  fields, 
we  must  better  improve  them  ;  instead  of  making  sti'ip  and 


11 

waste  in  our  woodlands,  we  must  cut  sparingly  ;  instead  of 
feeding  or  cutting  down  the  underwood  and  shoots,  we  must 
carefully  preserve  them.  Greater  economy  must  be  adopt- 
ed in  cooking  our  food  and  warming  our  houses.  The  all- 
devouring  chimnies  of  our  ancestors  must  give  place  to  the 
stove  and  the  furnace.  Our  houses  must  be  made  a  better 
defence  against  the  cold,  and  their  materials  must  be  taken 
from  the  earth  rather  than  the  forest. 

There  is  one  species  of  trees  entitled  to  your  particular 
regard.  It  is  the  sugar  maple.  This  flourishes  on  almost 
any  soil,  yields  to  none  in  cleanliness  and  beauty,  is  excel- 
lent for  fuel,  and  furnishes  sugar  little  inferior  to  that  of  the 
cane.  One  hundred  of  these  extended  on  the  margin  of 
your  fields,  or  set  in  the  form  of  an  orchard,  would  afford 
an  ample  supply  of  sugar  and  molasses  for  half  a  century  or 
more,  and  when  they  began  to  decay,  reward  you  with  fifty 
or  an  hundred  cords  of  the  best  fire-wood.  The  expenses 
of  transplanting  them  will  be  but  trifling,  their  injury  to  the 
land,  if  any,  inconsiderable,  and  a  few  years  will  give  to 
them  great  beauty  and  value. 

The  value  of  the  locusts  and  of  the  mulberry  deserve 
particular  notice,  but  they  are  behoved  to  be  duly  appre- 
ciated by  your  Society. 

In  the  management  of  your  various  animals,  having  se- 
lected the  best  bloods,  you  have  only  to  provide  for  them 
warm,  dry,  and  commodious  shelters,  and  deal  out  to  them 
sweet  and  wholesome  fodder,  and  pure,  clean  water.  Neat- 
ness and  cleanliness  in  this  department  will  contribute  much 
to  the  health,  growth,  and  corpulency  of  your  stock.  A 
slattern  in  the  house  is  not  more  disgusting  and  unprofitable, 
than  a  sloven  in  the  barn.  In  the  treatment  of  those  patient 
and  docile  animals  which  perform  your  labor,  let  me  crave 
your  mercy.  Neither  suffer  them  to  moan  with  hunger  or 
thirst,  nor  to  be  loaded  or  driven  beyond  their  strength.  A 
mild  and  generous  usage  will  secure  their  attachment,  excite 


12 

iheir  courage  and  resolution,  and  dispose  them  to  volunteer 
their  most  vigorous  efforts  in  your  service.  Your  interest, 
as  well  as  the  dictates  of  humanity,  require  that  you  abstain 
from  all  cruelty  and  abuse,  and  that  your  dominion  over 
them  be  tempered  with  lenity  and  kindness. 

To  carry  into  effect  the  objects  of  your  association,  and 
give  to  your  occupation  all  the  improvements  of  which  it  is 
susceptible,  will   require   the   unremitted   energies   of  your 
mind,  as  well  as  much  vigorous  bodily  effort.     Agriculture, 
like  all  arts  and  sciences,  is  progressive,  and  must  never  be 
suffered  to  rest,   or  retrograde.     Your  observations  must  be 
made  with  accuracy,  and  your  researches  parsued  with  ar- 
dor.    Placed  in  a  country  containing  a  great  variety  of  soil, 
in  a  climate  mild  and  healthful,    under  a  government  which 
can  impose  no  burdens  on  you  without  your  consent,  owners 
of  the  land  you  occupy,  furnished  with  the  most  approved 
implements,  and  having  for  your  guide  the  experience  of 
former  ages,   and  the   means  of  making   new  experiments 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  it  would  be  strange, 
"  passing  strange,"  if  you  made  no  advances.     I  have  said, 
that  heretofore,   the  sciences  held  no   fellowship  with  agri- 
culture.    A  better  day  has   began  to  dawn  upon  that  long 
neglected    occupation.     Men  of  genius  and  learning  have 
devoted  their  talents  to  lighten  the   burdens  of  the  laborer, 
and  give  success  to  his  efforts.     As  the  powers  of  nature 
begin  to  be  developed,  and  its  laws   are  better  understood, 
difficulties  diminish   and   experiments   succeed.     The  sci- 
ences have  already  done  much  to  aid  your  cause,  and  may 
be  expected  to  do  still  more.      A  new  era  has    commenced, 
in  no  longer  confining  science  to  the  cell  of  the  monk,  and 
the  chamber  of  the  philosopher,   but  in  communicating  it  to 
the  world  at  large,    and   applying  it  to  useful    and  practical 
purposes.    The  discoveries  of  the  geologist,  and  the  experi- 
ments of  the  chemist  are  spread  before  you,   through  the 
agency  of  the  press.     Much  mutual  benefit  may  also  be  ex- 


13 

pected  from  your  Society  and  similar  associations.  They 
emphatically  mark  the  spirit  of  the  age,  as  distinct  from 
that  of  any  former  period.  Other  nations  have  had  their 
festivals  and  their  fairs.  The  Olympic  games  of  Greece, 
and  the  gladiatorial  exhibitions  of  Rome  characterize  the 
age  and  ruling  passion  of  each  of  those  great  empires,  which 
in  succession  gave  law  to  the  world.  But  when,  or  where 
has  public  attention  been  excited  and  directed  to  the  inter- 
est of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  ?  When  have  men 
of  wealth,  and  science,  and  influence,  taken  such  a  deep 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  laboring  part  of  the  commu- 
nity ?  When  was  information  upon  these  subjects  so  widely 
diffused  and  so  eagerly  sought  ?  These  signs  of  the  times 
indicate  that  a  better  state  of  things  is  to  be  expected — that 
causes  are  in  operation  which,  if  continued,  will  effect  a 
mighty  revolution.  The  united  efforts  of  the  great  mass  of 
intelligence  cannot  be  fruitless.  By  repeated  experiments 
and  careful  observations,  from  year  to  year,  something  will 
be  gained.  Whatever  discoveries  or  improvements  are  made 
by  one,  will  become  the  property  of  all,  and  never  be  lost. 

Agriculture  and  manufactures  are  not  insulated  interests. 
They  are  intimately  connected  with  other  arts  and  occupa- 
tions, with  the  sciences,  and  the  laws  and  policy  of  our  own 
country  and  of  foreign  nations.  The  prosperity  of  the  ag- 
riculturist depends  not  merely  upon  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  his  produce,  but  upon  the  readiness,  certainty,  facihty, 
and  advantage  with  which  he  can  vend  the  surplus,  or  ex- 
change it  for  such  articles  as  he  may  need.  The  same 
doctrine  is  true  in  its  application  to  the  manufacturer.  It  is 
in  vain  that  he  produces  the  best  wares,  unless  they  can 
find  a  market ;  and  the  easier  and  cheaper  they  can  be  con- 
veyed, the  greater  will  be  his  profit.  W^hatever,  therefore, 
tends  to  furnish  a  sure  and  steady  market,  or  to  diminish 
the  expenses  and  risk  of  transportation,  or  to  reduce  the 
price  of  articles  to  be  received   in  exchange,  is  to  the  far- 


14 

mer  and  manufacturer  a  direct  and  positive  benefit.  In  this 
view  the  construction  of  rail  roads  and  canals  through  an 
extensive  inland  country,  and  improving  the  navigation  of 
rivers,  opening  a  free  trade  with  such  nations  as  will  pur- 
chase our  produce  and  manufactures,  or  in  exchange,  supply 
us  with  such  articles  as  we  may  want,  prohibiting  or  impos- 
ing duties  on  such  importations  as  come  in  direct  competi- 
tion with  the  produce  of  our  farms  and  the  wares  of  our 
work-shops, — are  subjects,  in  which  the  interest  of  the  far- 
mer and  the  mechanic  are  deeply  involved.  A  regard  to 
your  interest,  therefore,  requires  that  your  views  be  extended 
beyond  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  the  increase  of  your 
flocks.  Your  voice  must  be  heard,  and  your  influence  felt 
in  our  state  and  national  legislatures.  The  opinion  of  sound, 
intelligent,  and  practical  farmers,  is  entitled  to  great  consid- 
eration ;  and  I  am  happy  to  say,  that  the  time  has  come 
when  gentlemen  of  every  profession  are  disposed  to  treat  it 
with  respect.  By  continuing  to  merit  the  esteem  of  your 
fellow-citizens,  you  will  not  fail  to  receive  it ;  and  so  far  as 
legislative  aid  can  advance  your  interests,  you  may  expect 
the  co-operation  of  a  wise  and  patriotic  legislature. 

In  times  like  the  present,  of  general  depression  in  every 

branch   of  industry,   you   must   expect  to  participate  with 

your  fellow-citizens.     Economy,  at  all  times  commendable, 

now  becomes  an  imperious  duty.     If  the  products  of  your 

labor  can   find  no  market  abroad,  let  them,  at  least,  supply 

your   wants  at  home.     To  effect  this,  I  place  great  reliance 

on   the   industry  and  ingenuity  of  your  virtuous  wives  and 

daughters.     They   will  curtail  your  shop  bills  by  furnishing 

many   articles  of  apparel  of  their  own  manufacture.     Like 

the  good  wife  described  by  Solomon,  they  "  will  seek  wool 

and  flax,  and   work  willingly  with  their  hands.     They  will 

lay  their  hands  to  the  spindle,  and  their  right  hands  hold  of 

the  distaff*;    their  candle  goeth  not  out  by  night."     Such 

merchandize  is  better  than   that  brought  from  afar — such 

industry  is  above  rubies. 


15 

You  will  not  deem  me  to  have  surpassed  the  province 
assigned  me,  when  I  recommend  to  you  the  exercise  of 
that  influence  and  authority,  which  are  vested  in  an  em- 
ployer over  those  in  his  service,  in  suppressing  all  lewdness, 
profanity,  intemperance,  lying,  gaming,  pilfering,  and  what- 
ever is  opposed  to  good  morals,  and  a  decent  and  orderly 
behavior.  Your  interest,  your  self-respect,  and  your  duty 
to  your  domestics  and  to  your  country,  demand  this  at  your 
hands.  When  a  large  portion  of  our  population  shall  be- 
come as  debased  and  degraded  as  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  in  the  eastern  hemisphere,  our  elections  will  be  a 
farce,  and  our  political  edifice  will  fall  and  bury  us  in  its 
ruins.  He,  therefore,  who  attempts  to  reclaim  some  who 
begin  to  go  astray,  to  prevent  the  fall  of  others,  and  to  in- 
spire all  with  a  due  sense  of  the  value  of  character,  and  to 
elevate  them  to  a  decent  standing  in  society,  performs  the 
best  of  charities  to  the  individuals,  and  is  a  public  bene- 
factor. 

While  we  regard  the  moral  deportment  and  welfare  of 
others,  may  we  not  neglect  our  own.  While  we  till  the 
ground  from  which  we  were  taken,  and  to  which  we  must 
return,  let  our  treasures  be  deposited  in  that  "  better  coun- 
try," where  flows  "  the  river  of  hfe,"  where  stands  "  the 
tree  of  life,"  and  where  "  the  light  of  the  sun  and  of  the 
moon"  will  be  extinguished,  in  the  brighter  splendor  of 
God's  eternal  day. 


